The Noun-Classifier Construction In Chinese

On basis of Construction Grammar and in the guidance of Grammaticalization, Lexicalization and Linguistic Typology, this paper focus on disyllabic words constituted by a monosyllable noun morpheme and a monosyllable classifier morpheme such as"Cheliang","Mapi","Zhizhang", which probe into the structure, meaning, evolution and the character of linguistic typology of Noun-Classifier construction in particular. The paper is finished in the approach of combining with description and explanation, structure and semantics research, diachrony and synchronic analysis. Our main contents are as follows:There is a brief introduction of the theoretical background, research status and the disputes of former research at first. On the basis of the introduction, this paper defined the scope of the Noun-Classifier construction, raised the main points and introduced the main content of this research in general.The second is the research of syntax and semantic. This part include semantic and syntax analysis of Noun-Classifier construction. All the Noun-Classifier constructions are endocentric construction, while their semantic can be divided into two categories due to different semantic focus. The first one which focuses on the noun morpheme including two subclasses: those express sum-up meaning and those of aggregative meaning. The second one that focuses on the classifier morpheme expresses meaning of classificatory and shape of things. Attach to these study, this part discusses the character of the classifier morpheme and the syntax function of Noun-Classifier construction.The third part of the research is the evolution about Noun-Classifier construction, including the time of emergence, causing, track and the language mechanism of Noun-Classifier construction. The paper regards that the budding stage of Noun-Classifier construction can date back to the Warring States Period and the root cause is the bisyllablization of vocabulary in Chinese, and the immediate cause is the emergence of classifier words and its rich using. The Noun-Classifier construction can not only formed directly by a monosyllable noun word and a monosyllable classifier word, but also evolved from Noun-Noun structure with the rule of grammaticalization and lexicalization. Meanwhile, the memetic mechanism in language enlarged the number of Noun-Classifier construction. The paper has provided the evolution of"Cheliang"and"Mapi"for illustration.The research of linguistic typology is the fourth part. The paper have investigated the combination of noun word and classifier word in languages that have classifier words in Sino-Tibetan, together with the distribution and the semantics of Noun-Classifier structure and Classifier-Noun structure and the tightness between noun word and classifier word. The study divided the Sino-Tibetan language into four categories: those have Noun-Classifier structure only, those have Classifier-Noun structure only, those both have Noun-Classifier structure and Classifier-Noun structure and those have neither of the two structures. The research discover that the two structures have a complementary distribution, the Noun-Classifier structure exist mainly in Chinese and Tibeto-Burman language, while the Classifier-Noun structure exist mainly in Kam-Tai and Miao-Yao language, part of them exist in Ge-Yang language. The two structures have something in common in semantics and have two structures that are phrases and words respectively. Finally,the paper indicates that Chinese is one of the language in Sino-Tibetan that have a highest development degree in classifier words.There is a conclusion of the research at last, together with a brief statement of unsolved problems of this paper and the next research directions.